Peacemaker premiere episode was watched by 638K U.S. households

John Cena’s The Suicide Squad character got his own spin-off series via Peacemaker on HBO Max and the show finally made its premiere on the streamer last week. How well did the premiere episode perform? It appears decently for HBO Max but it falls a bit short of the shows that have been tracked by Samba TV.

Per Samba TV, Peacemaker was watched by 638,000 U.S. households in its first four days streaming on HBO MAX. This figure seems fine for HBO Max but it does fall considerably short of the Disney+ shows that have been tracked by Samba TV. Disney+ certainly has more reach than HBO Max but, just for comparison’s sake, let’s break down some of these numbers. The recently premiered The Book of Boba Fett on Disney+ was watched by 1.7 million U.S. households in its first five days while Hawkeye reached 1.5 million U.S. households during its launch. Again, Disney+ currently has more reach than HBO Max so these comparisons may be totally unfair and it’s their first DC property series to drop on the streamer. Lastly, it’s based on a relatively unknown DC character to the masses so perhaps this start is right in line with what they were expecting. The Suicide Squad, the film that introduces Cena’s Peacemaker character, was watched by 2.8 million U.S. households in its first weekend, respectively.

Created by James Gunn, the show serves as a spinoff from The Suicide Squad and it’s also the first series in the DC Extended Universe. Cena is back as the titular crime-fighter who believes in achieving peace by any means necessary. The series also stars Steve Agee, Danielle Brooks, Robert Patrick, Jennifer Holland, Freddie Stroma, and Chukwudi Iwuji.

The eight-episode HBO Max series, which premiered on January 13, 2022, centers on “black ops combating something catastrophic that’s facing the planet,” according to Gunn. The writer and director actually wrote all eight episodes of the series while completing work on The Suicide Squad during the COVID-19 pandemic, before HBO Max officially ordered Peacemaker straight-to-series in September 2020. Gunn also directed five of the eight episodes which saw the series filming in Vancouver, Canada, from January to July 2021.

Have YOU watched the Peacemaker premiere?